Of Angels And Nargles
by Slytherin Cat
Summary: "Did you know that angels used to have wings? Then they gave them away" "Why?" "They wanted to be free, I guess" As Draco stared into Luna's blue eyes that night, he thought that maybe her logic wasn't that strange. She saved him. Suicide thoughts.


This OS is written for the Ultimate Doctor Who Episode Competition (Vincent and The Doctor), the Favorite House Bootcamp (prompt: the Astronomy Tower) and the 'Stretch Your Limits' Competition (level Easy, write about Draco Malfoy).

I hope you'll enjoy this, and don't forget to leave me a little message. I wanna know what you think! :p

**Of Angels And Nargles**

The Astronomy Tower was dark and the wind was flowing through his hair. With the moon and the stars as only witnesses (they didn't judge. They could not judge him. Judge what he had had to do), Draco felt truly free for the first time in the whole year. Risking a glance toward the ground, he felt a pull, right behind his heart. It ached and almost hurt but it was a good kind of hurt. The kind that he hadn't felt in so long he couldn't remember the last time he had. The kind you had when you just finished something hard and were proud to have done it.

From where he was he could see the Black Lake and the Forest. It would be so easy to take a step forward and let himself fall. He had always loved to feel the wind rushing through his hair, surrounding him. He could almost already feel the rush it would give him, to fall freely to the ground, and the bliss that would await him.

His life wasn't truly his anymore, it was too controlled for that and he was so tired to have to pretend he was someone he couldn't be. Being the perfect Pureblood racist heir had been so much easier when the cause had seemed right, when the Dark Lord had been their hero, the one who would save them from the Light's oppression. Now that he was back Draco had seen him for what he was. Their damnation. And if his life wasn't his anymore then he only had one thing left to control.

He could end this here, right now. Nobody would notice and he would finally be free. Could it truly be that simple? A single step forward and freedom and peace forever? He longed for it. His heart and his mind ached for the calm.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes...

"Hello Draco Malfoy. Did you know that Crumpled Horned Snorkack do not have wings? Therefore they cannot fly."

He jumped back, startled. As his foot slipped on the cold marble he felt himself fall for the fraction of a second and he felt fear. It wasn't right. He wasn't supposed to be afraid to fall. It was supposed to be his deliverance. Now frowning at the ground like it just had betrayed him, Draco sat on the edge of the Tower, his back turned to the blonde haired witch who had just arrived. She had witnessed his weakness. No one should have been here.

It wasn't fair. Could he really never be free?

"You know, courtesy would want that you answered me. Have the Nargles got to you? They make you think the most troubling things sometimes..."

"What do you want Lovegood? I'm not part of one of perfect Potter's club. I don't translate your speech."

She sat quietly next to him, her naked feet hanging in the cold air.

"Did you know that Angels don't have wings? Well they did but they gave them away to the Nargles."

"Why would they do that?" Draco honestly didn't know why he was answering her and even listening to the blonde girl. But something in her speech or maybe in the way she said it just struck a chord deep in his heart and he couldn't help but wonder why something -if Angels even ever existed - would want to give up his freedom to be trapped down here.

"We may never know. I know I don't. I'm not an Angel"

Draco snorted. That was for sure, though she was weird enough to be considered as otherworldly. Promptly chastised by the dark look she sent then him he didn't say anything.

"I like to think that it is because they wanted to live something new. Something different"

"They're crazy. How could they just give their lives away on a whim like that? What if people needed them? How can they come if they don't have wings anymore?"

"Maybe. But then all the best people are."

A comfortable silence settled between them and Draco strangely found himself moving away - little by little - from the edge of the Tower as Luna scooted closer to him.

"You know I think they're always here"

"Who?"

"Angels of course. Or maybe just the Nargles. After all they're the ones with the wings now."

He shook his head in disbelief - and some bewilderment. How was that girl still (mostly) sane with thoughts like that? Though he admitted that it must be nice to have something to believe in.

"Is there a point to all of this?" He asked slightly annoyed. She had interrupted him in one of his rare moment of freedom. Yes rare was the right world. What he wouldn't give to be allowed to go back to those easy times all these years ago when the worst thing that could happen was to be caught after curfew and put in detention.

"Should there be one?"

"Usually this is how it works. You lecture me on how bad this -" he gestured wildly at their surroundings, somewhat discountenanced by her unblinking and surprisingly sympathetic blue eyes. "is and then I tell you I don't care"

"Why is it bad if it feels good?"

And that was the real question. His head and his heart knew that what he was doing - walking here, staring to the ground and letting himself fall a hundred times in his dreams - was wrong but he just couldn't conciliate it with the fact that he liked it.

"You are strange Lovegood"

"Thank you"

Once again Draco found himself thrown back by this strange girl and her logic. If only things were different. If only he were someone else... Life could have been interesting.

Still intrigued by what she said earlier, the Slytherin couldn't help but ask once again why. Why had those, admittedly hypothetic, Angels agreed to give up the airs?

"Don't you see?"

"If I did then I wouldn't have asked you" was Draco snappy answer (he would never admit that perhaps it wasn't that snappy).

But Luna only smiled with her mysterious smile. The one that said I know something you don't or won't believe anyway but was still so terribly annoying.

"Really? It's easy though. They had a choice and chose to be free."

The choice part was what hit him the most. Apparently even imaginary creatures had the choice to decide what they wanted to do. When he had heard that life was unfair he hadn't actually realized it was so horrible.

"What choice?"

"The choice everyone has. Follow or create."

"They chose to follow?"

She shot him a worried look. "I really think those Nargles must have gotten to you. Of course not. They chose to create."

"Wait weren't Nargles supposed to be nice?"

"Who said that? They like to play with people's minds."

"Never mind that. Are you actually saying that we are all Angels who chose to create? But... That doesn't make sense!"

"Does it really have to? If we chose not to be Angels anymore then we are just humans. Why should what we were before matter?"

Said like that it actually made sense in a twisted way. But he had already spent enough time in her company to realize that this was totally typical for her.

And for the first time, he really looked at her. He saw her not as Loony Lovegood the crazy Ravenclaw but as Luna, the girl who thought she had been an Angel someday and so couldn't help herself but help others. And she was absolutely beautiful.

For the first time in God knows how long he smiled and though he was looking at the bright white moon he could see her smile too in the corner of his eye.

"So you got it?"

"You know what Lovegood? I think I did. Yeah, I think I really did."

Thy stayed up in the Astronomy Tower, the silence only broken by their two breaths and the beat of their hearts. Sometimes Draco could swear that he had heard the stars whispering too, something secret that wasn't mean to be heard by human ears.

When the morning came, he slowly and carefully got up and left the Tower and the need to fall behind. He never looked back and he didn't dare think of what might have happened that night if not for a small blonde haired Ravenclaw.

Had he turned around he would have seen a smile on her lips and a playful wink shared with a silent and slowly disappearing moon.


End file.
